Exiled former president Pervez Musharraf has announced he will return to Pakistan later this month to lead his recently formed party in campaigning for a parliamentary election, despite the possibility of his arrest and concern over his security.

"There are efforts to scare me, but these people don't know that I'm not among the afraid," he told a rally of about 8,000 supporters in the commercial centre Karachi via video link from Dubai.

The former general said he would return between January 27 and 30 and dismissed concern about his security.

"I have fought wars. I am not scared of danger," he said.

Mr Musharraf's return, to lead his All Pakistan Muslim League's campaign for an election due by 2013, would add to the political uncertainty at a time of tension between the weak civilian government and the powerful military, which sets foreign and security policies.

The former president resigned and went to live abroad after his allies lost a parliamentary election in 2008 and the new coalition government threatened him with impeachment.

His popularity had plummeted after he became embroiled in a row with the judiciary and briefly imposed a state of emergency in 2007.

Saudi backing

Saudi and Pakistani sources said Mr Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup, planned to travel to Saudi Arabia to seek the kingdom's backing before going home.

Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, has considerable influence in political circles in Pakistan because of its assistance to the South Asian nation's fragile economy.

Saudi sources say their country is concerned about the friction between Pakistan's army and government in recent months.

"The stability of Pakistan is very important to the region and has to be maintained," said a second Pakistani source.

Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari is facing his biggest political crisis since taking office in 2008, over an unsigned memo to the Pentagon seeking US help to rein in Pakistan's generals, who have ruled the nation for more than half its history.